


The Interrogation of Anton Sokolov

by Io (thisismygenesis)



Series: The Ladies Boyle [2]
Category: Dishonored (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Lady Boyle's Party, Sokolov's Interrogation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-08
Updated: 2014-01-08
Packaged: 2018-01-08 01:15:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,652
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1126623
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thisismygenesis/pseuds/Io
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p><br/><i>"They say change gets more difficult as we get older - each year we're more stuck in our ways, more reluctant to learn something new."</i><br/>-Ariel Gore</p>
  <p> </p>
  <p>The Royal Physician reflects on giving up the name of the Lord Regent’s Mistress, how easy it was to dish out all information except which Boyle she was.</p>
</div>
            </blockquote>





	The Interrogation of Anton Sokolov

| 

The large door in the far corner of the room creaked open. The clicking of two pairs of boots stirred me from the haze I was slipping through. I saw steel bars separated me from a gray and wind-worn officer, decorated with symbols of his rank. A very large man in a naval uniform marched in, standing across the room with his arms behind his back as if he had nothing to hide. Though the sailor was a stranger, beside him stood a lank scrawny man I had dealt with before: Lord Treavor Pendleton, a young aristocrat who had recently assumed a good deal of Parliamentary holdings with the mysterious disappearance of his older brothers.

They hovered by the door they entered through, almost ignoring me entirely as they spoke between themselves. Pendleton spoke in a hushed tones, but the larger man’s voice was loud and confident as he said, “I’ll watch the Royal Physician. Martin is at the Abbey, but we still need to figure out what our next move is.”

They continued to stand as far from me as possible, and the scrawny lout kept up his cautious whispers. Like I could do anything about what I overheard on this side of the bars? Twitchy little parasite.

“If he wakes, send him this way. A familiar face could help with the interrogation.” Pendleton nodded to the sailor, accepting his command. He left room back through the door and closed it behind him, leaving his superior there to stare through me, as if plotting something in the back of his mind.

If he was going to give me the silent treatment, then I could do the same. Instead, I focused on my surroundings. Like my sleeves. I still wore my brown coat from yesterday. The suit, my hair, and my beard smelled like the air, and the air smelled salty and stagnant. The scent was similar to the river bank where the ocean met it at the delta. There was a window above my captor’s head, also barred and I leaned forward to sit up and I felt a sting of pain in my back when I shifted. Reflexively, I reached over my shoulder and I felt something the size of my thumb sticking out of me.

“Royal Physician, Admiral Farely Havelock.” The officer spoke up from his perch, using a much softer and calmer tone than with Pendleton. Using this opportunity to glance out the window behind him, I stood, feigning some respect to him. Hearing the name Havelock triggered some memory of a Naval Commander being relieved of his position for disagreeing with the new regime. ,

“I apologize for the cell, but as long as you cooperate, I’m sure that circumstances can be changed for the better.” From the window over the Admiral’s, I saw the glare of sun on water, proving my suspicion of a bank.

“Though you may enjoy the sailing, I heard that ‘Admiral’ is no longer a title you deserve.” With a quick jerk and held breath, I pulled out a dart with an empty capsule. I examined it for a moment and threw it down in his direction, sending it bouncing across the floor and skittering onto a dark stain at his feet which reminded me of one from my days studying canines. Back then, after I finished learning the inner workings of through vivisection, I tossed the corpse off my operating table, temporarily bored with the field. For a week I was indisposed, finding my muse, and it sat there as viscera spoiled on my floor.

As he approached my pen, I saw the eyes of a strategist behind that weathered and scarred face. This Havelock was a man who was able to both identify a man’s weaknesses and exploit them without qualms. This was the mastermind behind my capture.

“I can assure you, I earned it through much more than sound seas, and it’ll take more than the Lord Regent to take it from me.” He said it so simply. The words rolled off his tongue so easily. He stood still and straight, arms behind him. Nothing was different, except the glare in his eyes that changed everything he said to menacing. I walked to the center of the cage, slowly so he would not see me hesitate.

“Do you plan on revealing why I’ve been drugged by a tranquilizer? Or better yet, why I slept in some questionable organic compound?”

“There is something I need from you, Sokolov. Some information. And I will have it.”

“Well, Admiral. I am not entirely inclined to help you, whatever it may be that you are wanting to know. Maybe you should have asked before you threw me into a cage like some animal.” ,As if considering that possibility, he paused for a moment, slightly, before walking back towards the open door out of the warehouse-like building.

“Maybe. But I usually don’t have to ask for things when I can take them.”

As he paced back around the chamber, a tall man wearing the gruesome mask that plastered wanted posters all over Dunwall trudged in, enveloped by a tattered black coat with gold trimmings of someone from high rank. The brownish stains around the hem could easily be either dried mud from the river banks or dried blood, both flecked in a pattern from his boots stomping in the substance at a quick pace. Was he one who would run? Or stand and fight? I could not place the vague sense of deja-vu that ebbed from him, so I ignored it and focused on the Admiral, who started to speak up.

“Royal Physician, I believe you and Corvo knew each other in former days,” ,he said most casually, as if everyone knew that the former Lord Protector and the Masked Felon were one in the same. “Unlike you, our friend Corvo knows what loyalty means.”

In the open warehouse door, the scrawny and pale-dressed framed of Treavor Pendleton walked past, and my anger towards the supposed nobles and their tireless games scorched my face.

I ignored the surge of memories full of Corvo’s kills, his handiwork and walked towards the former Lord Protector, not daring to glance at the mask again. I stunted the chill that curled my spine and choked on bile thinking that the man had betrayed my Empress. Jessamine Kaldwin would expect me to spit in the face of her killer, whether she liked it or not. Instead, since I remember that she had cared for him greatly, I merely turned my back to him and focused on the attack dog’s new master.

“Bah. I am loyal to my inner spirit. You are the one consorting with the most wanted man in the Empire.”

“It’s my belief that Corvo was innocent in the death of the Empress,”he announced, glancing my way to see my reaction. But I gave him nothing except the stonewall face that won me several rounds of gambling the night before. While pacing behind Corvo, he continued seamlessly, “and the former Spymaster, or the Lord Regent as he calls himself, is a ruthless tyrant bent on destroying this city, the heart of the Empire.”

Hiram Burrows was a man that believed himself to be smarter than me, and this was no secret. I could hear it in his voice when he “ordered” me to complete my arc pylons. He probably thought he was the better man for having gotten me under his thumb. His iron fist on Dunwall was nothing without my technology, and this is how it turns out for me?

“You are mistaken if you think there’s love between me and our Lord Regent. But whatever you intend to do here, I assure you, I am beyond petty scare tactics.” As I spoke, Corvo shifted between me and my captor, guarding like the dog he was. I turned away from him once more, heading to the center of the cell and though Was he really a traitor? It made sense that Burrows had more motive to kill off the Kaldwin line than the Lord Protector, who was versed enough in his own methods to have escaped rather than be caught. And what would he have done with Emily? No, though he did ally himself with these ruffians, he wasn’t a traitor.

“If I don’t scare you, Sokolov, perhaps these rats will?” He banged on a large metal contained attached to the cell and loud shrill squeals echoed, like screams bouncing off walls. “Even if they don’t carry the plague, I’ve heard of a swarm of rats stripping a child’s body to the bone in half a minute. I’ve heard worse. How long do you think it will be before you talk? Before you beg to talk?”

In my own experiments, I had seen much worse. My face continued to mask the fear that was building up. “Rats? Is that the company you keep now, Admiral?”

“It’s the company you keep that interests us, Sokolov.” Of course. Why had I not think of the information being a name?

“We know you painted a portrait of the Lord Regent’s mistress, the very aristocrat who is funding the Military with her fortune.” The image of a blonde woman dressed in white posed with her back to me flooded my head with brushstrokes and contours. I walked away from the two men toward the far side of the cell. An artist never forgets a painting. ,“She is the key to the Lord Regent’s control over the city, and we must have her name.”

The woman’s name burned inside of my lips, lashing the inside of my cheeks with my tongue. I circled back onto Havelock and shrugged. “Sorry, Admiral. I cannot help you.”

Corvo approached the officer, and, like Pendleton, spoke in a low volume. Not caring to overhear, I put my back to both of them and leaned on the bars as far from them as possible.

“It’s time to put him to the question,” Havelock replied from behind me. I heard the clicks of footsteps again and the stained hem of Corvo’s coat floated into my view. I looked up into that horrendous mask, biting back the fear of what consequences came from refusing.

“You’re part of this rabble, but I know you have your reasons.”

Though I had spoken to my former colleague, the Admiral interrupted and answered, “Yes, he does. All we need is the name of the Lord Regent’s Mistress. It’s very simple.”

Irritated, I glanced to Havelock over my shoulder, stroking my beard impatiently. Is a name, an identity, worth this much hassle and effort? What would I get out of divulging said information? They hadn’t specified, just implied that if I reveal her name, I will be freed from this cage. However, what if I didn’t share? They wouldn’t really follow through on their threat - if they release the rats, than their information is gone in under a minute. Because I knew the Admiral wouldn’t care for my answer, I stared straight at Corvo.

“I elect not to tell you. You will have to force the words from me, and I warn you, my willpower is quite legendary.”

Corvo approached the bars before me, and for a second, I doubted my methods. i worried that he would have his superior release the rats to feast on what would have been the finest meal of their pathetic lives. But it was a second that was wasted effort.

“Perhaps I can find a bribe for you, Sokolov.” Hearing those words muffled from behind that mask, I knew that this was the man that had served his Empress honorably. It was definitely a technique promoted by the old adage ‘catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.’ The Admiral piped up from behind me, chiming in a short, “a curious strategy.”

“Of which I approve,” I cut him off. Interested in how the man behind the mask planned to bribe me, I watched him shuffle through the door and down the walkway out of my line of sight.

As soon as the canine was out of range, the Admiral’s ‘nice guy’ routine was worn off.

“If Corvo fails in procuring something to bribe you with and I find you useless, I will release these rats and they won’t leave anything for me to dump for the hagfish."

Though neither of us moved or spoke again during the short while Corvo had been out of the warehouse, the tension was so dense, it felt how I imagined passing through my Walls of Light would be like. When he did return before me, the only thing I said was, “I could use a drink.”

“I found a bottle of King Street Brandy for you.” The former Lord Protector pulled out a familiar shaped bottle filled with a reddish liquid, He stroked the crystal before passing it through the bars and into my hands. A dryness emptied my throat of all saliva and a headache spurred from the craving. ,I turned it over, glanced at the year, and almost crumbled.

“King Street Brandy? I didn’t know any more existed. It is an extraordinary gift. I see I’m dealing with men of taste.” I couldn’t wait to fill a glass full and take a match to watch the flame change hues with the oil. For such a gift, I had to be forthcoming with my information. “I can tell you this much; she was always referred to as Lady Boyle. I painted her, to be sure, but I never saw her face or learned her first name. You see, I painted her from behind. I assure you, she still makes a striking portrait. But I do not know which Boyle she is. I was to be introduced to her at a masked ball in her honor this very night. But I will miss that party, it seems.”

The idea of socializing was complete horror, but the opportunity for some company that could appreciate me was heaven compared to being stuck in this cage. Wine and various expensive liquor would be flowing and there would be noblewoman ripe for the plucking. It was to have been my Paradise to distract from my experiments in Purgatory.

“A masked ball at the Boyle Estate? Tonight? The timing is perfect, Corvo. But the Boyles are wealthy and ruthless, so security will be very tight."

“Of course, you already have a mask, don’t you, Corvo?”

“Yes, you will be able to mingle with them once you’re on the grounds. You’ll have to find out which of the Boyle women is connected to the Lord Regent, and take her out in whatever way you can devise. We’re very close now, Corvo. If you do this tonight, we’ll be able to strike at the Lord Regent himself, and put Emily on the throne. May the wind favor you.”

With his dismissal, Corvo left from the warehouse for the last time that night, and I was left in the cage when the Admiral followed him out. Left to my own devices, my mind began to wander, stuck on the price of a bottle for the name of Lady Boyle. I had never seen her face or learned her name, but like an artist never forgets a painting, a lover never forgets a conquest. The Boyle woman who had been financing the Lord Regent with his power had been Esma Boyle. I knew those hindquarters anywhere and I had known it when I had been set to paint them. My heart was warm with fondness until I glanced down at the King Street in my hand and felt the heavy weight of treachery. I uncorked the bottle and took a swig in the barren warehouse with no one but rats as my company.

I didn’t give them her first name. She will have to forgive me for that sentiment.  
  
---  
  
 

**Author's Note:**

> This section is basically my way of getting into Sokolov's head before I actually start working out how he is particularly tied to Constance and Esma Boyle. It was finished before the holidays, but my computer is dependent on Wi-Fi almost exclusively, so it is now getting posted. I wanted to be able to take something canon and tweak it. I have two other pieces that I am working on, but with my computer issues, it might take a while. Here's to hoping it won't take seven months or so again.
> 
> If you have comments or critiques, please share.
> 
> Also, the tidbit about a flame with the King's Brandy is something that I came up with for one of those other pieces that I mentioned and will be elaborated in it.


End file.
